The bears

 

A shot of black bears in Black Mountain NC. The black bears there have a brown snout, but apparently they aren't colored that way here. Photo posted on FaceBook from Sarah D.

In Durango CO the bears are closer to brown/black all over.  Photo posted by BearSmartDurango. They have sedated some moms and cubs and taken them out to higher elevations where there is plenty of food for them.

Another black bear in the  Durango area.

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The sad news is that Bear Smart Durango has it's hands full. 

The Durango Herald published this Opinion piece on Sept. 16, 2026:

A roughly 300-pound black bear was euthanized behind a Delwood Avenue home Sept. 5, moaning in a hole it had dug, too bloated to walk (Herald, Sept. 11). Colorado Parks and Wildlife found its stomach and upper intestine packed with plastic garbage bags and at least 10 non-flushable wipes. The bear was about 18, unseen by CPW since a 2012 study until hunger pushed it into homes a block away last month.

Around 2 a.m. Sept. 13, a bear peeled the screen off a bedroom window on Escalante Drive, tore down the curtain and climbed in on a sleeping 17-year-old. It sniffed her head through the blankets, then swiped her stomach. She screamed. It left, came back, left again. The next day, a bear entered another home nearby.

And about 10:30 p.m. Aug. 17, a Durango man shot at a bear tearing a screen to get in through open windows. He found blood the next morning; CPW could not track it. That bear is still out there.

Colorado has confirmed 10 bear attacks on people this year, a record, and CPW has euthanized nearly 300 bears statewide against 98 in all of 2025. We are in hyperphagia, when a bear needs 20,000 calories a day before denning, in a second year of drought and freeze that erased low-elevation forage.

The Herald goes on to encourage citizens to watch each other, for the town officials to fine those who go ahead and provide easy food sources in garbage bins, and for better bins be provided.

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“Trees are sanctuaries. Whoever knows how to speak to them, whoever knows how to listen to them, can learn the truth. They do not preach learning and precepts, they preach, undeterred by particulars, the ancient law of life...”

Herman Hesse